A teenage couple have been charged with crimes linked to child neglect after their 15-day-old baby girl was discovered with up to 100 rat bites leaving her skull exposed.

The newborn baby needed facial reconstruction surgery after she was left with a hole in her forehead when the rodents attacked her entire body at a home in Magnolia, Arkansas.

Her parents Erica Shyrock, 19, and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Charles Elliott, were arrested and subsequently charged with first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.

The baby girl weighed just 5lbs when she was taken to the Magnolia Regional Medical Center on Sunday (14 May) after being bitten 75 to 100 times by rats.

Police in Arkansas were called after the bites were discovered on her arms, fingers, hands and face including an inch-long cut on her forehead.

According to their arrest report police say on searching their home, they found bloody rat footprints, a baby’s hat soaked in blood, a baby blanket with blood on it and rodent droppings on the bedside table.